Lei Jun, founder and CEO of China's mobile company Xiaomi, shows new features at launch ceremony of Xiaomi Phone 4 in Beijing
Lei Jun, founder and CEO of China's mobile company Xiaomi, shows the new features at a launch ceremony of Xiaomi Phone 4, in Beijing, July 22, 2014. China's Xiaomi unveiled on Tuesday its new flagship Mi 4 smartphone, aimed squarely at the premium handset market dominated by Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. REUTERS

On Sunday, the Xiaomi Redmi 2 was unveiled by the Chinese smartphone manufacturer in China to replace the older Xiaomi Redmi 1S budget smartphone. As the older handset was also called Xiaomi Hongmi 1S, in the same way the newer handset is also known as Xiaomi Hongmi 2.

According to GizmoChina, the Xiaomi Redmi 2 specifications include a 4.7-inch IPS display with support for HD resolution and offer a pixel count of 312 ppi. The device is powered by a Snapdragon 410 SoC that comprises of a 64-bit quad-core processor that produces a clocking speed of 1.2 GHz along with Adreno 306 graphics. The chipset is supported by 1 GB of RAM. The handset comes with an internal storage of 8 GB and it supports up to 64 GB of microSD.

On the backside of the Xiaomi Redmi 2 is an 8 MP snapper that is enabled with 1080 p video recording whereas the front features a 2 MP camera and it can shoot 720 p videos. The handset comes preloaded with Android v4.4.4 KitKat onboard and is powered with a 2200 mAh battery. The Xiaomi Hongmi 2 comes in a variety of colours such as white, black, green, yellow and pink. The device measures 134 x 67.2 x 9.2 mm and weighs 132 g.

The Xiaomi Redmi 2 is a dual-SIM handset that supports LTE connectivity through multiple carriers on both SIMs. The connectivity features available with the Hongmi 2 include GSM, WCDMA, TD LTE and LTE FDD. Since the handset has been officially launched in China, it will support 4G LTE connectivity through leading carriers of China such as China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicorn.

In China, the handset has been launched with a price tag of 699 CNY that equates to $110 (AU$139) and it will be available for purchase from Jan9. Xiaomi is also expected to unveil Redmi Note successor at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2015 event, states PhoneArena. For international buyers who are eager to purchase the handset before the worldwide launch can visit Oppomart, the popular Chinese retailer, to ship the handset directly from China.

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